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Goodbye Austin!

Tom Sachs: Boombox Retrospective 1999-2015 Austin Contemporary Gallery

DIY, lo-fi, punk: these are all words frequently used to describe Sachs’s work. Using materials such as plywood, foamcore, batteries, duct tape, rudimentary wires, hot glue, and solder, the artist and his assistants fabricate inventive gadgets, hardware, objects, and architectural constructions translated into a unique homemade aesthetic.

Day 04

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IoT - Connected Revolution or Industrial Scale Surveillance?

“Connecting products is 21st century electrification” once said Matt Webb from Berg. From jet engines to door handles SXSW was teaming with connected objects. “It’s an industrial revolution of connectivity and were heading for smart dust” proclaimed author Bruce Sterling.

Connected objects and sensors are creating smart eco-systems both inside and outside the home. “Our jet engines produce over a terabyte of data over one journey” said Greg Petroff, Chief Experience Officer at GE Software, enabling real-time feedback and adjustments as well as assisting designers in optimising performance and experiences.

However some concerns were expressed over more personal and domestic applications. “The internet of things was in essence a cyber consortia for control of property” said Bruce Sterling. His concern is the way that corporations such as Google (who own Nest) are using connected objects to monitor and survey the home environments on top of their knowledge of our behaviour across digital patterns.

He felt that the culture around IoT need to be invented instead of focussing on further technological development. Establishing common protocols that can empower open eco-systems rather than closed ones, turning the internet of things into cohesive eco-systems for good.

Sources:

Closing TalkBruce Sterling - Science Fiction Author

#internetofthings #privacy #bigdata

Balancing data informed design with intuition

Everything around us is producing data as well as connecting wider ecosystems. These data streams can be extremely valuable to the design process, but how do we balance data-informed design with our intuition as designers?

As designers we have a role in interpreting data streams, making them clear and asking the right questions. We can use data to quickly identify the points of customer experience we can most impact.

We are used to double diamond shaped design process where we iterate and narrow to find one solution but using data allows us to craft the space of possibilities. Now we don’t come out with one idea but many possibilities to test.

Beta testing your design with customers live gives you a completely different perspective as a designer. The prototypes aren’t beautiful or precious but the feedback is. There is an argument that you can’t ask a consumer what they want as they won’t be able to see the possibilities and will just come back with what they have today. But what they do is different to what they say, by allowing them to interact and use the future, feedback is really valuable.

Traditionally we used to design in an open studio environment but as we’ve moved to designing digital experience a lot of work happens behind a screen. How do we find a way to be open and share ideas in the digital age?

Sources:

Artience: Art and Science in the World of Design Saleio Cuervo - Head of Design Dropbox Steve Vassallo - Partner, Foundation Capital Scott Klemmer - Associate Professor, UCSD Ann-Caryn Cleveland - Co-founder/Head of UX&D, BrightSky Labs

Tools of an Industrial Craftsman Greg Petroff - Chief Experience Officer, GE Software Andrew Crow - Head of Design, Uber Kendra Shimmell - MD, Copper

#internetofthings #bigdata #collabration

iBeacons and Non-Linear Storytelling

Designers are looking at re-purposing the IoT to create site-specific interactive stories in the public sphere.

Smart beacons are a bluetooth enabled technology that have existed for a couple of years, but have so far gained limited traction. They can for example alert shoppers in or near stores to special offers.

Several designers shared interesting work around harness iBeacons to create site-specific storytelling. Sounds, images and stories are seen at specific locations, often linking to local stories and histories. One commercial application showed how iBeacons and virtual reality could combine in a museum environment to create a secondary rich narrative for different audiences.

Meanwhile organisers of the festival scattered more than one thousand bluetooth iBeacons across Austin to help attendees make personal connections with one another. Whenever users opt-in to beacon alerts on the official app, they are matched with attendees sharing similar interests when they come within range of each other at selected venues.

Sources:

Heath Pecorino - Artistic Director, The Dead Horse Drum Klasien van de Zandschulp, Senior Interaction Designer, Lava Lab Lisa Woods - UX/UI Designer, thirteen23

#internetothings #ibeacons #interactivestorytelling

AI and Transhumanism

Perhaps the most wide-spread and talked about theme of SXSW was artificial intelligence and it’s role in shaping a better world.

Eric Schmidt, Chairman of Google, one of the most advanced mappers of the human mind claimed that AI would be one of the greatest forces for good in mankind’s history simply because of the fact it will make people smarter. Google translate is one example of computer systems mapping human behaviour but he feels the technology has the ability to complement the human brain by performing quantitive tasks.

Meanwhile engineer and biologist Martine Rothblatt stated that “humans have got used to having so many different existences via social media that having a mind clone would be natural”. She felt that by the rate that the technology is progressing it was likely that each of use would have AI clone or companion within the next 20-30 year.

However there is some clear scepticism around whether AI would be a force for good. Elon Musk, the Silicon Valley Entrepreneur recently announced a donation of $100m to help ensure a utopian vision for AI. His views were echoed by a protestors as a series of protests engulfed the streets of Austin.

One of the concerns is clearly around the distribution of AI - “will AI make the rich richer and the poor poorer?” asked one audience member.

Sources:

AI, Immortality and the Future of Selves Martine Rothblatt - United Therapeutics Corporation

How Innovation Happens Eric Schmidt - Exec Chairman, Google Megan Smith - Chief Technology Officer US Office of Science and Technology Walter Isaacson - Pres & CEO, The Aspen Institute

#transhumanism

The Future of Transportation

One of the most talked about applications of artificial intelligence is driverless transportation. When you move driverless you start to think about journeys as time to work, rest and play. There is huge potential for infotainment and entertainment thats why companies like Apple and Google are moving into this space.

In parallel to this shift it was felt that thinking about transportation as a service could bring a greater impact in solving some of the real issues in transportation. Lyft is a service that draws on the sharing economy, they allow their contractors to work for them anywhere between 0-100% of the time, and advanced hitch-hiking principle where people can offer rides / lyfts casually.

It was argued that transportation services like Lyft and other could bringing a radical reinvention of our cityscapes. Currently 50% of Los Angeles is road, but imagine when people pool resources and share rides cars to work, when people don’t park and get around without traffic.

However some commentators feel that transport services such as Uber and Lyft are monopolising transport and holding too much power in the industry. “How can an American corporation take over the transport infrastructure of an entire city such as Barcelona” proclaimed author Bruce Sterling.

Sources:

The Future of Transportation Logan Green - CEO & Co-Founder, Lyft

How Innovation Happens Eric Schmidt - Exec Chairman, Google Megan Smith - Chief Technology Officer US Office of Science and Technology Walter Isaacson - Pres & CEO, The Aspen Institute

#sharingeconomy #artificialintelligence #corporatepower

Day 03

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Gender Diversity in Tech

One of the key overarching issues and debates at SXSW was around the role and influence of females in the technology industry. Debate focussed on why the proportion is currently so low and getting worse. Panelists spoke of a culture of inequality at both the low and high level of tech organisations, stating that positive discrimination should be used as a tool to rebalanced.

Other speakers focussed on the way that engineering and maths are not cool subjects to take at school any more and asked how we could change the image of technology. One audience member thought the lack of females was largely due to biological cycles, As people study longer the time when they are trying to build their career in tech coincides with their biological clock.

Every session at SXSW was instructed that they must have a female panelist. This move led to scrutiny of how female panelist were treated within each session, in one high-profile keynote an audience member accused two male panelists of interrupting and talking down their female counterpart.

Sources:

How Innovation Happens Eric Schmidt - Exec Chairman, Google Megan Smith - Chief Technology Officer US Office of Science and Technology Walter Isaacson - Pres & CEO, The Aspen Institute

#genderinequality #diversityintech

From Bitcoin to Blockchain

Whist Bitcoin continues to grow and become more stable as a digital currency designers are exploring some interesting other applications of the principles and make-up of bitcoin.

Bitcoin is successfull because it is ledgered in a clever cryptographic way to only have a limited number of copies. It can be mined by computers at great cost but otherwise theres only a limited number of copies out there. It’s scarcity renders it a great solution as currency.

In a passing comment Eric Schmidt hinted that these attributes of Bitcoin have the potential to be applied and repurposed to other applications n the digital world. What would happen if your Facebook profile picture could only exist once? Data could become much more unique, ownable and controllable, having ramifications for personal privacy as well as the transfer and ubiquity of knowledge.

Sources:

Breaking Bitcoin: Flash in Pan or Future of Money

#Scarcity